Please!

snm   Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:34 am GMT
There are two kinds of methods: traditional payment methods and electronic payment methods.

Can I substitute that sentences with
"There are two kinds of approach: traditional payment approach and electronic payment approach.

I do not want to use the word " method ".
Jim   Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:19 am GMT
Why not? It doesn't sound quite right with "approach" ... or at least it seems to mean something different.
M56   Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:22 am GMT
The collocation is normally "method of payment". You could say "ways of paying" or "ways to pay", but that would depend on the genre you are writing/speaking within.
Robin   Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:53 pm GMT
Yes, sometimes when you use a different word, you lose something. That is the difference between someone who speaks English well, and someone who can get by in English.

A lot of foreigners can get by in English, and it does not really matter that their English is not perfect. However, if you want to express things, that are complex, emotive, or what ever, then it does become more important.

That is why, immigrants get by with broken English, but enjoy speaking in their own language as soon as they get home.

When i was at University, a Lecturer said that 'English was the Language of Business', whereas 'Welsh was the language of the hearth and the home'.

Which is why presumably why every Gaelic speaker thinks they are a poet, or blessed with the second sight.
Calliope   Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:56 pm GMT
"That is why, immigrants get by with broken English, but enjoy speaking in their own language as soon as they get home. "

Trust me, even immigrants that get by with perfect English enjoy speaking their own language at home. You get trained to think directly in your native language since birth, that's why you prefer it; not because you can or cannot communicate equally well in a foreign one.
Robin   Fri Dec 22, 2006 3:19 pm GMT
Hello, Calliope

What do you think of my reply to the Topic on English and American literature?

Robin